Overcoming the atmospherically limited image quality at the McMath-Pierce
main telescope is the most
important step that can be taken to improve the scientific quality of
infrared observations between 1.5 and 12 microns. To that end, a low-order
adaptive optics system for the infrared will be implemented at the
McMath-Pierce main telescope over the next few years. The development will
progress in small steps, starting with tip/tilt correction and progressing
from slow wavefront correction to fast correction. All hardware will be
based on commercial, off-the-shelf components.

Caption:
The lenslet array (left, above), provided by R. Radick (AFRL), feeds 306
sub-apertures for Shack-Hartman wavefront analysis to provide fast tip/tilt
correction to the McMath-Pierce Telescope. In the image on the right, each
sub-aperture shows a small sunspot and a white line indicating the local
wavefront tilt.

During the last few months, we have successfully demonstrated fast tip/tilt
correction by using a spot tracker. This included implementing an
experimental Shack-Hartman wavefront sensor with 306 sub-apertures that
measure the wavefront at 950 nm using a ZIMPOL CCD camera. These
measurements will be used to measure fixed telescope aberrations and seeing
in the telescope and in the atmosphere. In the future, an infrared science
camera will be added, and deconvolution-from-wavefront sensing techniques
will be used to correct its images.